McClatchy reports profit decline, but beats analysts’ estimates

Sacramento Bee | McClatchy release
McClatchy says its third quarter earnings fell to $9.4 million, or 11 cents a share, vs. year-ago profits of $11.9 million or 14 cents a share. The results beat Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimates of 7 cents a share. Revenues in the first nine months of 2011 were down 8.7 percent to $918.2 million compared to $1.0 billion in 2010, McClatchy reports in a press release. Ad revenues in the 2011 period were down 10.1 percent, and circulation revenues were down 4.1 percent. CEO Gary Pruitt says: “We saw some improvement in revenue trends late in the quarter: advertising revenue was down 10.4% in July, 10.8% in August and 8.7% in September.” DIGITAL REPORT: “Our digital results include both digital sales bundled with print and digital advertising sold on a stand-alone basis. Our bundled sales have suffered with declines in print advertising causing total digital advertising to decline 0.4%, but we were pleased to see an increase of 9.2% in third quarter digital-only sales compared to the 2010 quarter.